The Shelter

Category |

Human Interest, Human Rights, Migration, Social Issues

Year |

2014

Country |

Suisse

Running time |

101’ & 52'

Format |

16/9 | DCP

Production |

Climage

Director |

Fernand Melgar

After the uproar over Vol Spécial, Fernand Melgar returns to Locarno with a film that might seem less dramatic in content but which is equally tough on exposing a dysfunction within the world’s oldest democracy. L’Abri, the small and anonymous refuge in Lausanne which opens its doors to 50 fortunate homeless people on the coldest nights of the year, has what it takes to serve as a clear metaphor for reading the situation of Switzerland, following February’s successful referendum on curbing immigration.

Filming the nightly ritual that requires the wardens to make an absurd selection between who can enter and who instead must spend the long winter’s night on the city’s streets, Melgar offers us an image as specific as it is dense in meaning. An image that applies, in an obstinately annoying way, not only to Switzerland but to the Western world and its new role as barrier/landing stage for the new citizens. The topography of the place does the rest: metallic barricades glittering in the dark, cold steel doors that open for a brief instant to swallow up the lucky ones. And all around a turmoil, to be honest a little too composed.

Being inside or remaining outside: L’Abri constructs its drama on this opposition to which the world seems to have become accustomed. Following one of his favourite rules, Fernand Melgar does not take sides, though his sympathies are clear to even a minimally trained eye. His style of filmmaking does not emphasize the hypocritical fiction of those who espouse the position of the suffering; he avoids any imposition, even though, perhaps for the first time, he plays on a more marked proximity. Portraits thus emerge from the depths of the night, created by fragments, where more than words or actions, what counts is a glance. Or choosing to share the winter cold.

A winter spent in the heart of an emergency shelter for homeless people in Lausanne. At the entrance to this hidden bunker there unfolds every night the same dramatic ritual, leading to occasionally violent confrontations. The watchmen have the difficult task of “sorting the poor”: women and children first, men later if there is room. Even if the shelter can hold 100 people, only 50 “chosen ones” will be allowed inside to receive a hot meal and a bed. The others know that the night will be a long one.

FERNAND MELGARD

Fernand Melgar is born in 1961 in Tangier into a family of Spanish anarchist exiles. He was clandestinely snuck into Switzerland by his parents in 1963 when they entered as seasonal workers.

In the early 80s he and his friends founded Le Cabaret Orwell, a mecca of underground culture in western Switzerland, followed by the internationally famous rock venue La Dolce Vita.

Following a screening of experimental films, he turned himself into a self-taught independent film director and producer. He created experimental films and iconoclastic television segments in 1983. In 1985 he joined the production company Climage, with whom he has stayed a faithful collaborator, and has produced over twenty well-regarded documentaries on the subjects of immigration and identity.

In 2008 his documentary La Forteresse won the Golden Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival as well as many other international awards. His film Vol spécial, shot in 2011 in an administrative detention center, received more than thirty international awards, including the Swiss Film Award and the Prix Europa.

In his 2013 follow-up Le monde est comme ça, Fernand Melgar tells the story of some of Vol spécial’s protagonists after their expulsion from Switzerland.